Warriors Take Out Premiership In Style
The day had finally arrived. After months of training, a season packed full of enticing home and away games, and a couple of weeks of enthralling finals encounters, the Mac Uni Warriors travelled to Blacktown Olympic Park to hopefully put the icing on a stellar season.
Their combatants on this toasty Sydney day were the UTS Bats, a team buoyed by their convincing win over the minor premiers in the Preliminary Final and a team that had pushed the Warriors in their two previous encounters this year.
The scene was set, the weather was warm (some may say it was verging on hot), and the oval was a beautiful lush green. Grand Final day had finally arrived.
After his final pre-game address DK sent the boys on their way, out onto the battlefield through a strong Warriors support crew. DK took his seat on the boundary alongside his trusty side-kick Pete (and some fast looking guy dressed in fluoro green who had clocked up 20km by the main break) knowing that it was now down to Captain Carter and his crew to deliver.
The first bounce saw both teams rush in, everyone eager to get their hands on the pill early and settle the nerves that build before such an encounter. It was Captain Carter who led the charge in from the half back flank with a strong hip and shoulder on the UTS on-baller that set the crowd alight.
The tackling was fierce as both teams tried to gain a physical ascendancy and after a tight opening the Warriors were first on the board with a goal to Scotty. Phar Lap was leaping amazingly high and giving the likes of Disco and Deano first use of the ball and it didn’t take long until the Warriors had their second on the board through some glorious work from Funky.
Down the other end of the ground the UTS forwards were finding the Warriors defence hard to penetrate. Latte took a number of telling marks deep in defence and Donnie was running into plenty of open space creating the switch and when he wasn’t running he was smoothing like a king sized doona on a single bed. The UTS forwards did manage a couple of goals in the opening term but with a weight of possession the Warriors took a 15 point lead into the first change kicking 4.4 to UTS 2.1.
DK asked the guys to “roll it over” during the second term and the players abided. Timmy Scoular was standing tall across centre half back and with Buttercup presenting well up the ground the Warriors again dominated the inside 50’s. Ackers was relishing his time up forward contributing a valuable couple of goals for the day. The desperation to keep the ball in our forward half was epitomised by a magnificent chase and tackle from Jacko and Coops which resulted in yet another shot on goal. The radar though was a little off and after a somewhat wasteful 2.4 for the quarter the Warriors stretched the lead out to 15 points at the major change. It was a quarter that we would have lost if not for a goal after the siren to Scotty which certainly lifted the spirits going in to the rooms at half time.
Half time saw the guys take a well earned rest with the hot conditions taking a toll on everyone (supporters included). The realisation during the break that Whytey would take no further part in the game after sustaining a knee injury late in the half saw the Warriors lose an integral part of their running game. The talk in the rooms remained positive despite this and we knew that the Bats, a very proud club, would come out strong in the second half.
Back out on the ground everyone knew the Bats would throw everything at us to start the second half. In the absence of Whytey, Captain Carter stepped up proving some much needed run through the midfield and his off the ball pressure was like an axe chopping wood. Deano too was showing plenty of toe and plenty of hops as well as he pulled down mark of the year (captured gloriously on camera by the Gammetron). Mighty was cutting them in half with his tackles and Big Kev (a tremendous mid-season pickup) was dominating the aerial contests. But it was the backline combination again that proved virtually impenetrable with the youth of Timmy and JJ complimented with the “experienced heads” of Donnie, Inches, TJ and Latte.
The end result saw the Warriors stretch their lead (albeit minimally) with 1.5 for the term as opposed to 1.1 for the Bats. Roll it On. Roll It On!!
One quarter to go and although we had a handy lead conceding the first goal would have still given the Bats a sniff. The chances of a UTS victory were quickly snuffed out with goals to the Big Rig and yet another to Cations putting the result beyond doubt. Barnesy, after a quick re-strapping of the ankle, was keen to get back out amongst it. To UTS’s credit they played out the whole game but it was obvious 2009 was not going to be their year.
With 5 minutes to go it was great to see UTS start the sledging of our backline about their age. The best sledge was “you old blokes will run out of steam soon”.... With 5 minutes to go and 30 points up, it was not the time to start bagging the “experienced” heads about their age. Scotty, suffering a little from leather poisoning, spotted Jacko 40 metres out and with just seconds on the clock the “big man” kicked truly to ice the premiership cake.
The Macquarie University Warriors ran out convincing winners with the final score being Mac Uni 11.15 – 81 to UTS 8.5 – 53.
Let the celebrations begin.
Footnote - Buttercup was outstanding all day, work rate was second to none and ran at least 5 opponents off their feet, if he could have kicked straight would have clearly been best on ground (according to Buttercup anyway).
Goal Kickers: S. Cations 6, B. Akmens 2, M. Twohig, P. Jackson, B. Harland
Best Players: S. Cations, C. Mullins, D. Connors, D. Ollington, B. Harland, T. Scoular
Last Modified on 14/09/2009 17:02